This document provides an overview of hydrographic surveying. It discusses the purposes of hydrographic surveying such as determining water volume and flow rates. It describes the equipment used including sounding poles, lead lines, tide gauges, and echo sounding machines. Methods like establishing range lines perpendicular to shorelines and taking periodic soundings are covered. The effects of tides like spring and neap tides are also summarized.

1. HYDROGRAPHIC
SURVEYING

2. Syllabus 2
1. Introduction and Purposes.
2. Shore line survey
3. Soundings methods, gauges,
4. Equipment required for hydrographic surveying,
sounding party
5. methods of locating soundings
6. reduction of soundings and plotting of Soundings
7. problems related to hydrographic surveying.

3. Hydrographic surveying 3
It is the branch of surveying which deals with measurement of
water bodies e.g. Lake, river, sea, gulf etc.
The usual fundamental principles of surveying and levelling are
adopted for acquiring data for determination of :
1. Water volume
2. Rate of flow
3. To determine the shape of the area underlying the water
surface etc.

4. Purpose 4
1. To determine the quantities of subaqueous excavations.
2. Measure areas subjected to scouring or silting in harbors
or docks
3. Locate rocks and other objects such as buoys, lights etc.
to aid safe navigation
4. To prepare navigation charts exhibiting the depths
available for navigation
5. Control floods, and to plan water supply and storage
from rivers.
6. To develop water resources for power, irrigation and
recreation

5. Some points to note 5
1. The measurement of depth of water at various points
is termed as sounding.
2. Depth of Sounding is referred to the water level at the
time it is made.
3. Thereafter, the soundings are reduced to datum water
level, to account for tidal waters which undergo
continual change of elevation, with the help of gauges.
4. A number of benchmarks (B.M.) are established at
frequent intervals along the shorelines, and gauges are
set on them.

6. Some points to note 6
1. The field work consists of both horizontal as
well as vertical control.
2. The horizontal control is established by
traversing or triangulation.
3. For vertical control, the tide gauges are kept in
operation continuously since the water level at
the gauge must also be known when soundings
are recorded.

7. Tides 7
1. These are periodical variations in the water surface
of oceans due to the attraction of celestial bodies.
2. The principal tide producing agents are the sun and
moon, of which moon is more powerful tide
producer.
3. Tides produced by unbalanced attracting forces
between the moon and earth are known as lunar tide.
4. Tides produced by unbalanced attracting forces
between the sun and earth are known as solar tides.
5. Since the sun and moon act simultaneously, the
lunar and solar tides are superimposed.

8. Spring and neap tides 8
1. At new moon, the sun and moon have the same
celestial longitude and cross a meridian of earth at the
same instant.
2. The three bodies are in one plane.
3. The high water level of the resulting tide is above the
average, whereas the low water level is below the
average.
4. The tide is known as spring tide of new moon.
5. Same is the case for full moon.

9. Spring and neap tides 9

10. Spring and neap tides 10
1. In about 7.5 days when the moon is in quadrature, the
crest of lunar tide co-incides with the trough of a solar
tide.
2. High water level is below the average, whereas low
water level is above the average.
3. Such a tide is known as neap tide of the first
quarter/third quarter.

11. Spring and neap tides 11

12. Tide gauges 12
𝒉 = 𝒉𝟎 + 𝒚𝒄𝒐𝒔(𝟏𝟖𝟎°
𝒕
𝑻
)
h is height of water level at time of sounding
𝒉𝟎 is mean sea level
𝒕 is time between high tide and
time of sounding
𝑻 is time between high tide and
low tide
𝒚 is rise of tide above MSL
1. These are used to determine the exact water surface level.
2. The movement of tides during the time soundings are made.
3. The gauges are read at regular intervals, varying from 10m to
30 min.

13. Tide gauges 13
1. These gauges may be non-registering or self
registering types.
2. Non registering types requires an observer to
record the water level.
a) Staff gauge.
b) Float gauge
c) Weight gauge

14. a) Staff gauges 14
1. Simplest type of gauge.
2. It consists of a graduated board, 150 to 250 mm wide
and 100 mm thick, fixed in vertical position.

15. 15

16. b) Float gauges 16
1. The float gauge is designed to overcome the
difficulty in reading a staff gauge when the intensity
of tides is high and the variations of water level is
more.
2. It consists of a float to which a graduated vertical
staff is attached.

17. 17

18. c) Weight gauges 18
1. The weight gauge consists a weight attached to
brass chain or wire.
2. The chain passes over a pulley, and is laid
horizontal along the side of a graduated scale.
3. The weight is lowered to touch the water
surface, and the reading is taken on the
graduated scale against an index attached to the
chain.

19. c) Weight gauges 19

20. Self registering gauges 20
1. Self registering tide gauges automatically
record the variation of water level with
time.

21. Mean Sea Level 21
1. Mean sea level is defined as the main level of the sea
obtained by taking the mean of all the heights of tides
measured at regular interval of one hour over a stated
period (about 19 years) covering entire number of
complete tides.
2. Mean sea level shows appreciable variations from day
to day, from month to month and even from year to
year.

22. Sounding 22
1. The process of determining depths below the
water surface is called sounding.
2. Sounding is analogous to levelling on land.
3. The reduced level of any point on the
bottom of a water body is obtained by
subtracting the sounding from the mean sea
level.

23. Purpose for sounding 23
1. Preparation of accurate charts for navigation.
2. Determination of the quantities of the material to be
filled.
3. Obtaining information for design of breakwaters,
sea wells etc.

24. Sounding 24
1. The sounding points should be selected keeping in mind that all the
important irregularities are recorded.
2. The soundings are thus made along a series of straight lines at right
angles to the shoreline.
3. The spacing between the sounding lines and between the sounding
points depends upon the nature of submarine surface as well as on
the object of the survey.
4. Usually Spacing between sounding lines is kept 30 m and spacing
between sounding points is kept 7.5m to 15 m.

25. Sounding 25
Shore line
Range line
Sounding point

26. Range line 26
A range or a range line is the line along which
soundings are made.
These are usually fixed perpendicular to the
shoreline and are parallel to each other.

27. Range line 27

28. Equipment for sounding 28
The essential equipment and instrument employed for
taking the sounding may be grouped as :
1. Shore signals and buoys.
2. Sounding equipment.
3. Angle measuring instruments.

29. 1. Shore Signal and buoys
29
1. Shore signal are required to mark range lines.
2. Each range line is marked with two signals, at some distance apart,
along it on each shore.
3. The signals are usually wooden tripods with a white and colored flag
on the top.
4. A buoy is a float made of light wood or hollow air tight vessel
properly weighted at the bottom, and is anchored in a vertical position
by means of wires.
5. In deep waters, the range lines are marked by a signal at shore and
buoys in water.

30. 1. Shore Signal and buoys
30

31. 2. Sounding Equipment
31
 Sounding boat :
1. The sounding operation is carried out from a
flat bottom boat of low draft.
2. The boats are generally provided with opening,
called wells through which soundings are
taken.
3. The motor should have adequate control both
for low speed and for rough waters

32. 2. Sounding Equipment
32

33. 2. Sounding Equipment
33
 Sounding Pole or rod
1. These are made of strong well seasoned timber usually 5 to 10
cm in diameter and 5 to 8 m in length.
2. The sounding rods consists of two or three lengths screwed
together so that unnecessary length may be removed when not
required in shallow water.
3. A lead shoe of sufficient weight is fitted at the bottom to keep
the rod vertical in flowing water, and to avoid sinking in mud or
sand.
4. The graduations on the rod are marked from bottom upwards.
5. Thus, the reading corresponding to the water surface, is directly
the depth of water.

34. 2. Sounding Equipment
34
 Lead line
1. It consists of a graduated line or chain to which a lead is
attached.
2. Under ordinary tension, when wet, the line should not change
its length.
3. Every one feet of the lead is marked with a cloth.
4. The mass of the lead is generally between 5 to 10 kg, depending
upon the strength of current and depth of water.
5. A correction is required to be applied to the measured length to
get the true depth when using lead line.
6. Due to drag, the measured length will be greater than the true
depth.

35. 2. Sounding Equipment
35
Sounding boat / Sounding pole/ lead line

36. 2. Sounding Equipment
36
 Weddell’s Sounding machine
1. When there is a lot of sounding work, some form of sounding machine
attached to sounding line is used.
2. Weddell’s hand driven machine consists of a cast iron casing carrying on a
spindle gun metal barrel.
3. A lead weight (8kg) carried at the end of a flexible wire cord attached to the
barrel, can be lowered at a desirable rate, the speed of the drum being
controlled by a brake.
4. The spindle is connected through gears to two reading dials.
5. The outer dial records the depth in meters and the inner records in centimeters.
6. A standard machine designed to measure maximum depths up to 30m to 40m

37. 2. Sounding Equipment
37
Weddell’s Sounding machine.

38. 2. Sounding Equipment
38
 Echo sounding machine / Fathometer
1. Where the depth of water is too much, an echo sounding machine
known as fathometer is used.
2. It measures the depth below the boat on which it is installed.
3. It works on the property echo property.
4. It consists of a transmitter and a receiving oscillator, recorder unit
and a power unit.
5. The sound waves emitted at the surface of the water are recorded
back after these return from the underwater surface.

39. 2. Sounding Equipment
39
Echo sounding machine / Fathometer
Since the velocity of sound waves in water is known, the distance travelled
by sound waves can be calculated.
D = ½ V t
This method is very accurate and can be used in strong winds.
It is more sensitive than other methods, and produces continuous record in
the form of curves when boat is in motion

40. 2. Sounding Equipment
40
Echo sounding machine / Fathometer
Advantages of Fathometer :
1. It is more accurate than the lead line.
2. It can be used in strong currents or streams.
3. It is more sensitive than the lead line method.
4. It can be used on days, or in any weather, when the
ordinary lead line method would be impossible.
5. It is much more rapid in use than the ordinary method

41. 2. Sounding Equipment
41
Fathometer / Echo sounding method

42. 3. Angle measuring Equipment
42
Most common angle measuring instruments are :
1) Theodolite
2) Prismatic compass
3) Sextant.
The theodolite and prismatic compass are not suitable for angle
measurements from sounding boats due to instability of rowing
boats.
Sextant has been found to be most suitable for measuring angle in
any plane.

43. 3. Angle measuring Equipment
43

44. 3. Angle measuring Equipment
44

45. 3. Angle measuring Equipment
45
1. Navigators and surveyors measure angles from sounding
boat by sextant only.
2. When observations are made from the shore, theodolite
and prismatic compass are used.
3. The sextant used in hydrographic surveying is known as
the sounding sextant.
4. It slightly differs in construction from the astronomical
sextant.

46. 46
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